Author: J. Johnson

I’ve added the P&C Catalog No. 66200 and associated price sheet that was effective April 25, 1966. This catalog has been in my possession for quite some time. With all the hot weather we are experiencing right now there was never a better time to sit in front of the air conditioner and scan an old catalog.

Having just scanned the No. 40 catalog, the contrast between the two catalogs was quite apparent. 26 years of tool development was a considerable jump. Take for example gear pullers. I’m currently restoring an International Cub Cadet 1650 garden tractor and yesterday morning used a little puller to pop the flywheel off the old Kohler K341 engine. A simple one cylinder, 16hp, motor. The No. 40 catalog lists one page of pullers (with one extra on the following page). The 66200 catalog lists 5 pages of numerous choices. Mechanics in 1966 would have certainly appreciated so many options.

Today I added the No. 40 Catalog and the No. 42 Price List. The 42 Price List was an update for the Nos. 40 and 40-P catalogs, effective Dec. 1, 1941…just 6 days before Pearl Harbor. The Price List contained the ominous paragraph, “Note. Items priced in italics may be temporarily suspended in production due to the National Emergency and available only while present stocks last.”

Also interesting is the fact that the Nos. 40 and 40-P catalogs, copyrighted in 1939, were still being used at the end of 1941. I’m guessing the might have been used in 1942 as well. The war years were nothing if not disruptive to business as usual.

Tonight, under “Other” in the menu…I added two interesting “Self Selling” Merchandiser price lists.  These were big income producers for P&C and could be found in hardware stores across America in the 60’s.

The first page advertises the display unit, or “Merchandiser”,  and the reverse side lists the prices (dealer and retail), for each of the tools displayed on the Merchandiser.

Wouldn’t it be nice to purchase a 3/4″ x 7/8″ open end wrench for $1.99?!   Ahh…those were the days.

Yes….its definitely been awhile since a catalog was added to the site.  But that changed tonight, with the addition of a battered old No. 30!

Around the end of March, Dawn Edwards contacted me regarding this catalog.   The catalog had been her grandfather’s and he obviously felt it was worth hanging on to.  We reached a deal and I purchased the catalog from Dawn.  She knew it would have a good home, and she could return at any time for a look or show others.

Water damage has occurred at some point, which resulted in wrinkled and stiff pages.   Complete and legible, however.  Held together by some brass clips, which actually made for easier scanning since I could scan each page individually.

A good feeling to fill another hole in the lineup!

 

This week we have a special treat for you! A No. 40P catalog dating from 1939. Also new to the website, in addition to the catalog, is the price list for the No. 40 and 40P catalogs, effective June 1, 1939.

We owe a big thanks to Reed Armour for graciously allowing his copies to be shared with everyone and to Greg Kareofelas for doing all the scanning.

This No. 40P is special for a number of reasons:

First it represents the state of art of P&C under John & Jessie Peterson. Only a few more years pass before the transition to Plomb ownership.

Secondly, 40P illustrates a number of previously unseen displays, (at least unseen in our collection of catalogs at pnctools.com). The displays illustrated in the catalog range from the immense (3′ x 12’….yes, twelve feet long!) to small table top displays for holding a few wrenches at the check-out counter.

Thirdly, this catalog illustrates some tools previously unseen in our collection of catalogs. Most obvious of these for me was the “E” series of round handled box wrenches. My personal collection contains a number of these “E” wrenches and here is a photo of a couple. The appearance of the wrenches and logos had me dating them from the 30’s & 40’s, so I was pleased to finally find them in the 40P catalog.

The question for me has always been…what does the “E” stand for? I liked the “E” series. They seem slightly slimmer. The 40P catalog answers the question on page 3 and the bottom of page 16. “E” stands for “Economy”. I guess I’ve been a sucker for the “cheap” wrenches…although P&C goes to great lengths to avoid using that word regarding their wrenches! They use it for the competition, as seen in this quote from page 16. “Real ‘economy’ box wrenches available in 6 popular wrenches (12 different openings). P&C standard design, alloy steel, hand forged, quality, in dull plated finish and polished ends. Exceptional value and competitive in price with cheaper wrenches….”

Page 17 lists another unusual round handled box wrench.  The “H” series; “Heavy Duty”, “from select alloy steel and designed to withstand hard industrial service.”  I have never seen a “H” series wrench or one advertised on ebay or anywhere else.  Have you?

Another wrench I found in this catalog was the number 1205 obstruction wrench I recently picked up. Seen in this catalog for the first time, the wrench is described as a “No. 1205 12 Pt. Chev. Manifold and Starter Wrench.” Now if I just had a 1938 or 39 Chevy I could loosen the manifold and starter nuts.

I also have a P&C 2006, a valve tool previously unidentified by me.  Page 20 in the 40P lists it “For ’37 and older Ford motors”.

Finally, a subtle addition to the catalog I’m not sure how I even picked up. This is the first catalog (among our collection), where the weights of the tools are listed in the product descriptions.  Dang! I’ve got to be too obsessed with these catalogs to notice something like that! 🙂

One of the “holy grails” of P&C collectors has to be the early wooden box tool sets.  An example from the 1927 catalog is seen below.  These boxes appear to have been made for only a few years in the early history of P&C.

While seen in the 1927 Catalog, wooden boxes appear to be absent in the 1928, or at the very least, a mix of metal and wood.  The labels in 1928 were very different and were hexagonal in shape.  Two different styles of hex labels are seen in the 28 catalog; one that may have been adhesive and another  that might have been riveted in place.

If we assume wooden boxes were made from 1923 to about 1928, there is little wonder they are rare.  Even more rare is finding such a box with an intact paper label.

One featured on the website is on the “Patents” page.   If you scroll down to the second patent, at the bottom of the listing, there are links to pictures of that particular tool in one of these rare wooden boxes…thanks to Greg Kareofelas.  The labels are generally in a format where they leave room for a distributor’s stamp, as seen in this example to the right, courtesy of the Milwaukie Historical Society.

In this example, no distributor was noted and the space is obviously blank..

Below the Milwaukie Historical Society example is a label courtesy of Timothy Peterson.  E.A. Boyd used a stamp to provide his information. Most of you will recognize E.A. Boyd and will remember the interesting story regarding his business dealings with John & Charlie

Troy Dietz recently sent me photographs of one of these rare wooden boxes he discovered.  This box label presents an interesting twist.

Below is a photograph of the box and contents.

At the bottom of the page you can see a closeup of the paper label.

A little tattered it still looks good for 90 years of age.  As you can see it follows a slightly different format than the labels seen above.  Instead of “For Sale By”, the wording is now “Sole Distributors”.   The distributor is printed instead of stamped and listed as “P. & C. Tool Co., 424 W. First Ave. Main 2088, Spokane, Wash.”.

The label seems to indicate the presence of a P&C Tool retail outlet store in Spokane.  Indeed, the address is an early business district in Spokane.
Based on information from Jim Peterson, we know P&C did have a similar store in San Francisco.

The label raises many questions: How many similar small retail stores did P&C have during this time period?  What other evidence remains regarding these stores?  Why did P&C pull back from this marketing strategy?

While in McCall, Idaho last weekend visiting family, I took time to visit the Central Idaho Historical Museum. Primarily searching for any old photograph’s of John & Charlie’s early blacksmith shop/garage there, I was given a biography of Ben & Stella Johnson as remembered by their daughter Ione. Stella was Jessie Peterson’s sister.

Included in the 17 pages was the following paragraph, which I have included in the website in the page entitled, “Idaho Years of P&C Tools”. The account reveals an interesting side business that Charlie and John engaged in…the first Ford dealership in McCall.

“Uncle John had become a dealer for Ford’s Model T cars in 1917, so when Ben returned to McCall in April of that year, he took-a job as a salesman for John. He skied down the Valley, over the fence posts, going to all the farms. In one day, so the story goes, Ben sold fifty Model T Fords. When the cars arrived by train, Ben had to learn to drive them so he could teach the new owners. The cars had to be partially assembled by Peterson and Carlburg at the Dealership Garage and they had to invent tools for that purpose. Thus was born the P and C Tool Company that later on moved production to Milwaukee, Oregon.”

I’m not entirely sure John & Charlie invented tools just for assembling the Model T’s but that very well could have been part of the equation.

Shrewd planning. Revenue from the sale of Model T’s would have been nice, but ongoing maintenance and repair would have kept them in business for awhile…especially with Model T’s!

I have changed the description of the No. 48 catalog to “1948” instead of “1948 or 1947?”, for the following reasons:

• Page 12 of the catalog is headlined with, “Announcing P&C’s Expanded Line Of Pliers, Adjustable Wrenches and Pipe Wrenches”.  The description goes on to say, “Through the acquisition of another modern factory [Jamestown, N.Y.] , P&C is now able to offer a complete line of highest quality pliers, adjustable wrenches and pipe wrenches.”
• Since the Jamestown factory was acquired by Plomb in 1947 it is doubtful that P&C could have completed all the necessary steps (including adding this section in a 1947 Catalog) of adding these tools to the lineup in 1947.
• A new price list was issued by P&C to suppliers in May of 1949, which applied to catalog No. 48.

The No. 48 catalog covering 1948 seems to be the most likely scenario based on the facts above.

I have added two catalogs since the last post. The No. 48 and a No. 32 that appears to cover from 1931-1933.

The No. 48 is chock full of tool display boards. It is a large catalog that is well organized and easy to read and follow.

The No. 32 is unique as well, for a number of reasons;

• The catalog is larger than it’s predecessors. Slightly taller but much wider.
• The catalog is identified on the cover as, “CATALOG No. 32 – Copyright 1931” but contains an extensive supplement section at the back with hand drawn illustrations and hand typed & mimeographed text.  The supplement sections are dated consecutively and run through Feb. 23 of 1933. This supplement was bound separately and glued into the back of the catalog.  The question now is, did P&C save some money by not issuing catalogs for 1932 and possibly 1933 by creating their own supplements, binding them into the most recent catalog and distributing them?  That would appear to be very likely from the look of this catalog. And would make sense especially during the depression years.
• A number of new tools are seen for the first time in this catalog.  Gear pullers, Ball Peen hammers, pliers in a number of variations, open end wrenches of various types, an adjustable wrench!, “new style” ratchets, etc., even airplane tools for the first time (page 51).
• Also on page 51, and elsewhere in the catalog, some of the prices have been crossed out and lower prices hand-written the side.  Not sure where Keith got this catalog, but if it was a “rescue” from the razing of the factory, that would be interesting.  Not sure how I could make that sound more innocent…”rescue” is such a nice word.  🙂  I’m sure the statute of limitations is well over Keith.

Finished and published the last major history page for the site. Also finished tweaking the mobile side of the website for mobile phones and tablets.

Next items planned include adding newly acquired catalogs, a tool page and Keith’s page.